


Witches Butter

by Comidia_del_Arte



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Horror, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:09:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29579361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Comidia_del_Arte/pseuds/Comidia_del_Arte
Summary: Elora Adelgrief is the hedge witch that lives apart from civilization in Wallachia. As is the norm for a hedge witch, she lives and operates outside of society and provides assistance to those that seek her craft. In order to provide such assistance she relies on herbs and fungi. To obtain the necessary ingredients Elora braves the trek that takes her past the Castle Dracula. Which she assumed to be empty, until the day she passed by and saw a pair of corpses impaled at its entrance.
Relationships: Alucard/Original Character(s), Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	1. Witches Butter

### The Woman

Alucard had seen the woman many times over the course of the last several months. She would skirt the edges of the grounds, keeping a careful eye on the main entrance. After clearing the peripheral of the door, she would vanish into the forest that surrounded his fortress. 

That was not the thing that be piqued his interest. It was the fact that overtime she did not appear bothered by the corpses that flanked the entrance to his home. Sure, at first, she spared them a glance and at one point she approached them and laid out a selection of herbs. After that, she treated them as if they were part of the architecture.

For a while, Alucard was content to allow the stranger on his grounds. She did not stray onto the doorstep of the castle, so there was no reason to waste energy on driving her away. That is, until one fall day when she made her usual trek past the castle.

As was custom, Alucard watched her go, but this time her gate was more awkward, it was then that he noticed that a cane accompanied her usual basket. Her face was screwed into a look of annoyance and pain, it was then that she paused to wipe the sweat from her brow and Alucard had the chance to see her in full. In the past, her pale freckled skin had been smooth and unblemished. Today, a large angry red gash marred her features, and her right eye squinted as the injury stopped just below it. 

After a couple minutes, the woman took up her cane and entered the forest. Without thinking, Alucard pulled away from the window and made for the door. He did not know why, but he wanted to know who had hurt her and why.  
Elora staggered along her well-trodden path. She was not far off from her favored spot for mushrooming. “I’d be there by now if my leg would hurry up an heal.”

Dropping onto a fallen tree, Elora pulled up her skirts. Thankfully, the sight that greeted her was tight clean wrapping. Her stiches were no longer bursting. Sadly, the same could not be said of her face. Slowly, she placed gentle fingers over the wound. It was clean and she had managed to cure herself of infection. Despite that, Elora understood she would be left with permanent scar. Snarling, she took up her cane and basket. “Superstitious bastards.”

Once again, she was off and after a few more minutes she had made it to her destination. Placing the basket at the foot of a large maple tree, she grasped the corners of her apron and hobbled about the clearing. Finally, her eyes landed on a clump of yellow. “Witches butter!”


	2. The Hedge Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elora meets the resident of the castle.

Smiling, she plucked the fungus from the tree and plopped it into her apron. It was jellylike in her fingers and was the color of rich freshly churned butter. Hence its colloquial name. Humming to herself, Elora set to work, filling her apron, and then depositing the fungus into her basket. After 20 minutes of foraging, she lowered herself beneath the maple and took a break. Pulling an apple and knife from her apron pocket, she set to eating it as she leaned back against the trunk and watched the clouds swirl through a break in the forest canopy. The birds had ceased their song, and the forest had gone eerily quiet. Smiling, she had another slice of apple “A while more of foraging, and that should be enough for Widow Ulther and her daughter, should last them a month at most.”

Examining the blade of her knife, Elora called out “That should keep me from your forest for a good long while, my lord.”

A twig snapped; the leaves of the bushes rustled as someone broke the line of the clearing. Taking up her cane, Elora steadied herself as she greeted the stranger that approached her. His hair was fair and incredibly long, he was taller than any man she had met in her 30 years of life, and his skin was whiter than sun baked bones. Yet, those attributes were not so striking as his eyes, which were a warm shade of liquid amber. Elora had never seen such eyes. 

He was silent and made no show of formally introducing himself. Pursing her lips, Elora sliced off another piece of her apple and offered it to him. “Hungry?”

The man glanced at the apple, but his attention was back on her within seconds. He was staring openly at her scar, and then his eyes jumped to her bad leg. Elora adjusted her skirts to hide the bandage. “You were uninjured the last time you came here…”

The hedge witch blinked, unsure of how to respond, she simply nodded. “Yes.”

His attention returned to her face. “You did not do this to yourself.”

Slowly, she shook her head “I don’t make a habit of slashing my face and cutting up my leg with a carving knife.”

He raised an eyebrow “Who was it?”

Why would he wish to know such things? Elora’s grip tightened on her cane. “I feel I should not tell you, my lord.”

Nodding to herself, Elora deposited the core and knife into her pocket and took up her basket. She would come back tomorrow; present company had put her off foraging. The man made no moves to stop her as she walked past him. “Why did they do it?”

Pausing, Elora muttered to herself “Give me patience.”

Looking over her shoulder she replied, “Why do you want to know?”

His lips quirked “I have seen you pass by my home several times over the course of the last few months.”

He walked toward her “The additions to the entrance did not deter your visits. In fact, you left behind a gift.”

Elora remembered that, she had left behind purple hyacinth twined with willow branches. She had sensed an aura of sorrow, of pain. It held fast to those corpses long after the flesh rotted from them, and the ravens had pecked away their eyes. She imagined that the one who had impaled them, was the man that stood before her. What he had done gave him no pleasure, only grief and sorrow. “I apologize if what I did offended you.”

The lord dismissed her apology “It did not.”

He had come closer. “I fail to see what this has to do with my injuries, my lord.”

Reaching out, he plucked a clump of witches butter from her basket. “I do not see you as the type to bring violence on yourself.”

Elora took back the fungus clump “I’m sorry to say my lord, that you know extraordinarily little of me. Violence is merely a product of my existence and my work.”

She had provided him a clue, whether she knew it or not. He nodded “Your work?”

Sighing, Elora decided it was best to provide him with the why. “I was attacked because I gave a local girl powder made of black cohosh, vervain, saffron and tansey. She was with child and her husband was a monster.”

The lord raised an eyebrow “He was?”

Elora slowly smiled “Aqua Tofana. Arsenic, lead and belladonna. She made his dinner with it the night he returned from my cottage.”

Resting her basket in the crook of her arm, Elora hobbled on. “And the church does not lock you away?”

She chuckled. “They fear me, I have empowered their women.”

The man called out “And for that they do not arrest you?”

Elora nodded “The women protect me. They call me the Hedge Witch of Wallachia, only the women know where to find me and what I look like.”

A gust of wind ruffled her copper hair, the man stood in front of her. Elora blinked, then looked over her shoulder and back at him. “You do not appear concerned that I may report you to the church.”

She hobbled past him again, smirking. “I am not concerned in the slightest. My only concern is…”

At this, she stopped and rounded on him “Whether or not you will allow me to continue foraging on your land?”

He nodded “I do not foresee any problems jeopardizing our current arrangement.”

Elora eyed him carefully, as if looking for the slightest tinge of deceit in his eyes. Finding none, she nodded. “Then you shall see me in a month’s time to forage for supplies, good afternoon my lord.”

Gripping her cane, she hobbled away, basket in arm


	3. The Widow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elora fulfills her order for the Widow Ulther and her daughter.

Alucard watched her go, a bit thrown at the fact that she did not seem the least bit threatened by him. Even when he had gone ahead of her, creating the illusion that he could vanish and reappear. Yet, the only thing that concerned her was his permission to allow her to continue foraging on his land. 

The dhampir chuckled as he uncurled his fingers, resting in his palm was a knob of witches butter that he nicked from her basket. If he remembered correctly, this fungus was not exactly special. It had truly little flavor, and to his knowledge, no medicinal purposes. Crushing it between his fingers, he muttered “Perhaps it would behoove me, to read up on the subject of medicinal plants and fungi.”

That in mind, he walked back to the castle. Not even sparing the impaled corpses at the entrance a glance, as his thoughts were occupied by the Poisoner.

Elora walked through the door to her cottage just before the twilight hour. The walk to the forest never took her this long, but with a bad leg and the many breaks, she had lost the daylight. Sighing, she set down her basket and cane. Using the table to steady herself to where she could kneel, Elora spread a clothe on the hearth separating the mushrooms. Not long after, she had a fire going at the center of her cottage. It was a bit warm for it, but with the loss of daylight, she would have to make do if she were to fill Widow Ulther’s order. 

After a few hours in the heat, the witches butter had dried. Taking up a medium sized burlap sack, she poured the fungi in along with the stripped leaves of dried thyme. Setting that on her table, along with a jar of honeycomb, Elora looked up just as her door opened. Smiling, she took up her cane and greeted her visitors. “Widow Ulther.”

Widow Ulther was a beautiful sort. Her hair was pin straight, the color of soot. Her eyes were a deep brown, at one point her skin had been something akin to milk. After the, untimely death of her brute of a husband, widow Ulther had taken to managing the land he had left behind. While somehow managing to keep her daughter, Hilde, in line. Speak of the devil, Elora peaked around the widow and found the 10-year-old hiding behind her mother. “Miss Hilde, how are you feeling?”

The child squeaked and shuffled out of sight. Chuckling, Elora hobbled to her table and grabbed the order. The Widow looked her full in the face and gasped “Ms. Adelgrief! What happened?”

Chuckling, Elora placed the sack in front of her customer. “Nothing to concern yourself with… Now! You will make tea from this, two cups in the day and one in the evening before bed. If she is having an attack, have her take deep breaths and brew her a cup. I have also included some honeycomb which you can use to sweeten it. The tea will need to steep for ten minutes.”

Widow Ulther nodded as she took the sack “And this will cure her?”

Heaving a sigh, Elora shook her head “No, what your daughter has will be with her likely for the rest of her life. However, it is possible that she may be averse to certain things. Does she experience her breathing troubles at particular times?”

The widow thought for a moment “I am not sure.”

Nodding, Elora pressed the jar of honeycomb into the widow’s hands “Observe her then.”

The widow took the jar and handed over her payment. Elora tucked it in her apron and continued “When you run out, be sure to come to me and I will make you more.”

“Thank you, Ms. Adelgrief.”

Turning, the widow guided Hilde to the front. The child looked nervous and would not look Elora in the eye. She really could not blame her; the gash was a bit alarming. Still, the girl was not without manners, her mother had made certain of that. “Thank you, Ms. Witch!”

Elora stroked the girl’s hair. She looked so much like her mother. “Not at all little one. Now mind your mother.”

Hilde glanced up and smiled, thankfully she appeared unalarmed by Elora’s injury. With a nod, the witch dismissed her. The girl took this as a chance to run outside. “I shall see you in a month’s time.”

The widow nodded and was quick to follow her daughter out the door. Going to the window, Elora watched the pair as she made their way down the path. Smiling, she pulled out the widow’s money. She probably could have charged more, but Elora was not in the business of gutting her patrons. Going over to the loose stone in the floor, she pulled it up. Beneath was small wooden box with a gold painted trim. Though, that bit of beauty had faded with the years as the trim was only survived by flecks and pieces. Stashing the money inside, Elora returned the box to its hiding place. After checking that the stone was secure, she went about preparing for bed. Tomorrow she would return to the forest, she had intended to forage for Cat’s Tongue. Hopefully that pushy lord would have the good sense to leave her alone and not force his company on her.


	4. Valerian Root

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elora relives the night she was attacked

As the night wore on, Elora found sleep difficult. Every little unfamiliar sound roused her, set her heart racing. The hedge witch would never admit this to anyone, but she was scared to sleep. When Mr. Rosetti, had come through her door wielding a knife, she had taken too long to wake. That was when he saw his chance and slashed her across the face. Searing agony and blood blinded her vision, making escape impossible. When she did attempt to crawl away, he took her leg and slowly drove the blade in and downward. He laughed when she screamed, finding satisfaction in her suffering. “Serves you right! Satan’s Whore!”

He hit her over and over, dislocating her nose in the process, leaving behind a series of horrific bruises. He had thrown her over the table and was reaching for the buckle of his pants when Elora managed to unbalance him by leaping backwards. Causing him fall right into the center of the pit, where a few coals lay smoldering. The man ran from her home, shrieking in agony. Leaving Elora, in a heap on the floor, where she did not move till sunrise. Mrs. Rosetti found her like that. She had come to return the poison that Elora had given her. 

Mrs. Rosetti, without a word, made her tea and helped bandage her wounds. She even performed the agonizing task of resetting the witch’s nose. In the early afternoon, Mrs. Rosetti departed, vial of poison in hand. She returned to the cottage late that night and confessed to lacing her husband’s drink with the aqua tofana.

Mrs. Rosetti left the village not long after. She did not tell the witch where she was going. Probably for the best, not that anyone would go looking for the newly widowed Rosetti. Her late husband had been drunkard with a horrid temper that did not stop at his young pretty wife. Elora would not put it past the villagers to celebrate the early demise of Mr. Rosetti. They probably credited God for it. But of course, the women of the town knew better and they would take that secret to their graves. 

Elora filled her copper kettle with shavings of valerian root a few spoons of honey. “Valerian root for the restless mind, honey for good dreams.”

Placing the kettle over the fire, she hobbled back to her seat and started to undress her injured leg. There was only a little blood, and no puss. Soon the only reminder of that night would be the unsightly scars. While the water slowly came to a boil, Elora cleaned her wound and rebandaged it. The kettle whistled its completion just as she had finished dressing her leg. Pouring herself a mug of tea, Elora looked out her window and at the stars. She was tired, so very tired.


	5. Cats Tongue

Alucard spent the better half of the night reading up on medicinal plants and fungi. It did not take him long to find information regarding the witches butter that the Poisoner had been so intent on collecting. Based on their conversation, he had expected the mushroom to be of the toxic variety. As it turned out, witches butter appeared to have one medicinal property, it was good for those who suffered from respiratory issues. They could be eaten or brewed into a tea for treatment. He did not recall the Poisoner struggling to breathe, and she had been rather active throughout their interaction. Which meant the fungus had likely been meant for someone else. Not only was the witch a poisoner she was also a physician. 

When he finally went to bed, he took a couple books with him to read himself to sleep. After going over a few paragraphs, he laid back and dozed. For the first time in several months, his mind was untroubled, and he managed to fall into a deep restful sleep, which lasted him all the way into the morning. When Alucard finally woke, he felt truly restored. No nightmares plagued him, instead the dreams he had were merely a reliving of his conversation with the hedge witch.

Going to his window, Alucard looked out onto the grounds, it was a pity that she would not be back for another month. He could go looking for her, but he did not expect that she would appreciate being hunted down. Sighing, Alucard went to turn away from the window, when a flash of copper caught his eye. Looking back out, he slowly smiled at the sight that greeted him. It would appear that the hedge witch had not been entirely truthful on her promise to return. For here she was, although this time it appeared that she had chosen to visit the doorstep of the castle. Glancing around, she deposited a parcel on the steps. Taking one more look around, she hobbled towards the forest and disappeared shortly after. 

Going down to the entrance, Alucard collected the parcel. Opening it he found a rather impressive selection of herbs. Inside there was a note, which read.

> ‘I take it you do not make a habit of visiting the village, so I took it upon myself to provide you with herbs that do not grow here. I give it as thanks for allowing my continued use of your forest.  
>  ~Elora.’ 

Leaving the gift inside, Alucard left the castle. It did not take him long to locate her even though she had gone further into the forest and well past the clearing where she foraged for witches butter. Elora hobbled along for a while, seemingly unaware that she had company. Suddenly, she paused and glanced around behind her. “Were the herbs I left, to your liking…. Or are you here to complain?”

Alucard eyed her and stepped out from his hiding place. She smirked and continued walking, he followed her. “It was a very thoughtful.”

She chuckled and mused. “Yes, it was rather thoughtful of me, wasn’t it? But that does not answer my question, did you like them?”

Turning, Elora eyed him expectantly. He nodded “Yes, I like them very much. I have not had cinnamon in an exceptionally long time.”

Smiling, the witch trudged on, Alucard not far behind. “So, am I to call you ‘my lord’ or do you have a name?”

He went silent for a moment. She chattered on “I should think it only fair; you know my name now.”

The witch stopped at a decaying old stump. Resting her cane on a nearby tree, she knelt. Alucard made moves to assist her, but she shrugged him off. “Leave it, I’m fine.”

He pulled back. “Are you in any pain?”

Leaning closer to the stump, Elora pulled a tuff of white jelly off the rotting wood. “As much as you’d expect—."

Glancing over her shoulder she continued “Afterall, a man did try to take my leg off with a carving knife.”

Turning back to the stump, she began to collect more of the white jelly. Alucard observed. “What is that?”

Holding the jelly up to her eye to inspect it, Elora muttered “Cats Tongue!”

The dhampir plucked the fungus from her fingers and looked it over. “But I don’t believe this has any medicinal properties.”

Elora took it back “You would be correct; however, it makes for a lovely treat that I’ve grown rather fond of over the years…”

Alucard snatched it back and popped the mushroom into his mouth, it was jelly like in consistency but was utterly tasteless. “Your favorite treat is not exactly flavor potent.”

The witch rolled her eyes “Shows how much you know; you’re supposed to dry it and then candy it with honey. One of my patrons is paying for my services in lemons.” 

Kneeling in front of the stump, Alucard began to harvest the mushrooms. Elora peered around the rotting wood and raised an eyebrow “So, is it to be ‘my lord’ or will you be telling me your name?”


	6. Trickster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elora and Alucard get to know each other.

Smirking, Alucard plucked a mushroom from the stump and dropped it in the basket. “For now, you may call me Alucard.”

The witch’s eyes narrowed. “I sense that isn’t your true name."

He ignored her words and continued to harvest the cats tongue. Hearing her sigh, he glanced at her. “Eh, I suppose it is better than ‘my lord.’ Alucard it is. Since we are sort of getting onto a basis of names, I am Elora, though I’ve already told you.”

Chuckling, he nodded. “Yours is a strange name.”

The witch eyed him “How so?”

Alucard met her gaze. “In some cultures, it means foreigner, but in others it means ‘God is light.’ For you, that comes off a bit contradictory.”

Nodding, the witch held his eyes and grinned sardonically. “Hm, my mother was rather contradictory in nature, despite being a witch and a pariah of the church, she fucked a priest.”

Alucard blanked for a moment but that did not seem to bother Elora. “She wanted to honor my father in some way, so she named me Elora, and called it even.”

The dhampir stared at her. “Your father is a priest?”

Elora chuckled and gathered up the last of the cat’s tongue. “Mm, if he had known I existed, I’d have been a greater shame to him than the memory of taking a witch to bed.”

When Alucard moved to help her up, she did not push him away. “He does not know of you?”

Straightening her shawl and taking up her cane, Elora chuckled “He didn’t, my mother fled the country when she realized she was pregnant.”

Tangling her fingers in her copper hair, Elora smirked “It was for the best, the church would have seen this and known who sired me.”

Alucard followed behind her “Were they in love?”

Hobbling along, Elora laughed to herself. Slowing her pace, she found a downed tree and took a seat. Setting down her cane and basket, she extracted a knife and apple from her apron pocket. “Christ no, my mother fancied herself a trickster at the worst of times. I never knew her to turn down the opportunity to corrupt the men of the church.”

Slicing off a piece of apple, she offered it to Alucard, who took it. “What happened to her?”

The blade stuck into the meat of the apple “She died, a year before the night creatures were set loose on Wallachia.”

Slowly, she sliced the fruit and deposited it into her mouth. “May I ask what happened?”

Shaking her head, Elora swallowed. “No, I’d rather not talk about it today.”

Taking a seat, Alucard took the remainder of the apple and bit into it. “What was your mother’s name?”

Scoffing, Elora snatched the apple back and cut him a piece. “Her name was Hepzibah Adelgrief.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Let me know what you think so far!


End file.
